mulligan, 03 October 2005, Comments Off on Why Golf is Such a Great Game…Categories: Uncategorized

Today, Paula Creamer finished her round in a tie for 23rd in the Office Depot Championship held at Trump National in California, and would have collected a check for $11,859. However, after the round Creamer realized that she had switched out her 5 iron for a 3-wood to complete her round on Monday morning.

Under the rules of golf, generally, players are not allowed to switch clubs within the same “round.” (However, there are exceptions.) Because of the round being suspended on Sunday night and requiring a Monday finish, the final “round” of golf never ended. So when Paula switched the clubs in her bag, she, I believe, would have been penalized 2 strokes a hole up to 4 total strokes for each hole she played with the new 3-wood. But in this case, Paula already had signed her card and was on her way home. As a result, she was disqualified!! Unfortunately for Paula, this mistake cost her a bit of shopping money and at least travel expenses.

The fact that Paula turned herself in is what makes golf great! Golf is a game of integrity where players consistently call penalties on themselves, when players violate the rules. One example that comes to mind was Jeff Maggert in the Masters a few years ago (when Weir won), and Jeff hit the ball out of the bunker that came back and hit him in the chest. The broadcasters commentating on the event did not realize that the ball had even hit him, and if there were not television cameras allowing slow motion replay, I doubt that anyone would have ever noticed. But Maggert, being honest, called a 2 stroke penalty on himself and again made the rules of the game and integrity of the sport great.

I do not remember the last time a baseball player called a strike on himself when he checked his swing. Or a basketball player who traveled when going to the hoop, stop and call traveling on himself. Or a football player to trapped a catch and when the officials did not blow their whistles stopped and told the referees that he did not catch the ball.

Call it what you want, but Creamer’s actions today is what makes me love this game.